MDKSA-2004:087

Problem description

A race condition was discovered in the 64bit file offset handling by
Paul Starzetz from iSEC. The file offset pointer (f_pos) is changed
during reading, writing, and seeking through a file in order to point
to the current position of a file. The value conversion between both
the 32bit and 64bit API in the kernel, as well as access to the f_pos
pointer, is defective. As a result, a local attacker can abuse this
vulnerability to gain access to uninitialized kernel memory, mostly
via entries in the /proc filesystem. This kernel memory can possibly
contain information like the root password, and other sensitive data.
The updated kernel packages provided are patched to protect against
this vulnerability, and all users are encouraged to upgrade
immediately.